I don’t know if I can blog back but we have been watching a lot of movies lately. The birthday month started with 3–“Dagitab”, “War is a Tender Thing”, and “Beauty and the Beast”. It was great but it was also exhausting. Maybe we’ve been so excited we ended up doing too much? I’m not sure, but hopefully we’d pretty much adjust to where we need to be.
“Dagitab” was a Cinemalaya film that I regret missing at Trinoma. Carlito Amalla invited us to watch it with him and since we don’t really have a solid plan for Friday night, we thought to ourselves, why not? The film was not bad, but it was far from great. The central figures are two UP teachers and their life after spending it mostly inside the university. There are certain inside jokes that I got but I didn’t really appreciate it. It was a bland look at a university life and it didn’t really do justice towards the passionate lives that UP teachers live. It centered upon the thought “Masyado ka kasing matalino eh” mocking the intelligence that is one of the strengths of a university professor. Also, given the assumption that these two characters are just too smart, why on earth did they marry each other if the man is still in love with another and the woman knows it? It gives such a petty interpretation of the characters, that in reality, if they chose to stay in the university so long because of their passions, would actually be far from being petty.
Adjani Arumpac explained her film “War is a Tender Thing” to a theatre full of students and teachers. Very insightful movie that intersects personal, regional, and national narratives and histories. Successful CONTEND event, hopefully with more events to come. #contend #film #filmviewing (at UP Film Center) From: http://instagram.com/p/smzuUuFbC7/
I required my students to watch “War is a Tender Thing” so I have to watch it with them. This was an activity by UP CONTEND and I am happy to be a part of it. I want my students to learn how to watch movies outside the box that Hollywood and popular Pinoy films trained them to watch. It was a very steady film that didn’t follow the typical pattern of introduction, conflict-building, climax, resolution, and conclusion. Watching a steady narrative was very new for a lot of my students. The demystification that the film offered towards the supposed Christian-Muslim war in Mindanao was also invaluable. They understood the importance of personal narratives that are outside the grand narrative of history. They saw the political machinations that is actually at the heart of the conflict, rather than the simplistic media interpretation of religious conflict. It also made them more in touch with the real lives of people, rather than looking at it from an impersonal distance.
Tale as old as time… Happy to see Beauty and the Beast in the cinema. It was only then that we realized it was a French film dubbed into English. Loved that they included the Beast’s gifts and the Father’s mistake of picking a rose into this version. Belle’s gowns were also amazing! Wish I can wear one! #film #filmviewing #beautyandthebeast #belle #rose #gamerchef From: http://instagram.com/p/soVy4_FbNg/
Our third film was the lightest one–“Beauty and the Beast”. We discovered that it was actually a French film dubbed into English and it doesn’t have anything to do with the Disney version. It made me want to read the writings of Charles Perrault again. I am happy to see the film highlight the significance of picking the red rose. The Beast was actually helpful of the lost Father and even gave him food and gifts. In the fairy tale, the Father even spent the night in the Beast’s castle. It was just over-stepping the Beast’s generosity when he picked the rose. Supposedly, the Father brought Beauty (Belle) back to the Beast because he picked the rose for her. I did not fully understand this as a child but the Father used Belle to save himself. Belle did visit her family eventually because her Father got sick, but then her siblings grew jealous of her apparent wealth. The film was closer to the fairy tale but it still glossed over a lot of ugly narratives originally present in it. On the lighter side of things, the film had very beautiful costuming. The design though, is similar to Rivendell of the Lord of the Rings, Ian pointed that out. There’s just no recovering from that comment. But Belle’s gowns were just so beautiful.
Weekend movie marathons are fun, but incredibly intense. I have a feeling that I should slow down and given that its my instinct kicking in, I should probably listen. One of these days, we should really just kick back, relax, and enjoy the show.
I’ve been trying to go back to blogging without much success. I haven’t even published the first one that I wrote. (By the time I publish this piece, that piece would already be out! Am writing and scheduling posts, so I hope I get back on track!) But it doesn’t matter. I will continue to push, even one step at a time, until I fully get my grove back on. (Do people even use that phrase? Again, no matter.)
It’s a rainy night and instead of checking papers, I decided to write my birthday blog. I decided to take my blog on another direction and not just focus on academic works. After all, that is what journals are for. It doesn’t mean that I would turn my blog into narcissistic rants. It simply means that I want to write about the different aspects of my life, so I am not stuck on posting ephemeral statuses on Facebook.
So, my birthday. My partner and I initially planned a grand celebration, a birthday-around-the-world kind of celebration. No, we couldn’t afford to fly around the world, so we made a list of restaurants and food places that we would try for my birthday month. That was before we found out that we actually had a lot of commitments for this month. So the next best thing is to make the best out of the days that we have free.
Department of Art Studies Faculty, September 2014 (Photo originally grabbed from Nap Rivera’s Facebook Page.)
My birthday month started with an exhausting General Education Workshop by the department. But the silver lining here is that I got to see my department work together, despite the debates, questions, and sometimes conflicting notions. Our department picture was actually very pretty, if I do say so myself. Young, energetic, and passionate.
“I did say I love keeping the tickets right? I also have endless programmes that I don’t have the heart to let go of. What I also loved about this concert is how they took the time to explain each piece to the audience. It was not just a beautiful experience, it was also an educational one. #concert #performance #dawani #chorale” http://instagram.com/p/soVyRyFbNf/
Our first activity for the month was watching the UP Dawani concert “Sa Dakong Sikatan”. UP Dawani is an all-female chorale of the UP College of Music. Krina Cayabyab, my co-teacher, invited me and Louise to attend, as she is performing with the group. It was an excellent performance. They performed pieces by South East Asian composers and all of it are very interesting. I particularly enjoyed “Bubuy Bulan” by Antonius Priyanto while “Sotto Voce” by Jonas Baes was quite challenging. Suffering in quite is something that resonates in me, though my experience is nowhere near the sufferings of the children of Cambodia. We also had the opportunity to experience “Veniet Dominus” by Ramon Santos, the newly awarded National Artist for Music. It was an amazing experience. It was our first time to enter the Church of the Risen Lord and it has some unique architectural elements. I remember how architecture in the 60s were inspired by space travel and CRL does reflect that. The conductor, Eudenice Palaruan, also took time to explain each piece that the chorale performed. As we are no music experts, such explanations are invaluable to the appreciation of the music and the over-all experience. The rain added a personal touch rather than hinder the character of the music we were listening to. Ian and I enjoyed the evening and spending it with good friends–Louise and Melo, was the icing on the cake.
We were feeling peckish last night, so we flew to Spain to celebrate my birthday. (I WISH!) Lol. Cold, rainy night after the concert, we ended up at Sancho’s Churreria for some comfort food. We can pretend we’re in Spain while enjoying Spanish/Spanish-inspired food. #aroundtheworldformybirthday #dinner #30 (at Sancho’s Churreria, Maginhawa Street) From http://instagram.com/p/shZJdUlbHY/
The concert wrapped up late evening and we decided to go to Spain. Just kidding. We just went to Sancho’s Churreria for late dinner. Come to think about it, at around 10 in the evening, we were right on time for dinner, had we been in Spain, particularly Madrid. Well, I can’t say that they serve authentic Spanish cuisine, but maybe inspired by it. My favorite there is the beef and mushroom pot pie. There’s just something so comforting about an oven-baked pot containing beef and mushroom, dripping with gravy, and topped with mashed potato. Ian had a seafood dish that is not quite memorable, but not terrible. It was just ok. We intended to end the meal with churros but decided on a lighter alternative dessert–the brazo de mercedes. It was ok, fluffy on the outside, the custard filling was creamy, and it was just at the right level of sweetness. Over-all, we had comfort food on a very rainy evening, before heading home.
Performativity in Aesthetics and Theoretical Practices
by: Maria Portia Olenka C. Placino
“Artworks must be conceived not as products (decontextualized or contextualized) of generative performances, but as PERFORMANCE THEMSELVES.”
Image via Wikipedia
Art as Performance by David Davies is a challenging book that uses philosophical and logical approaches towards aesthetic practices. His main thesis, as stated above, points out that artworks are not simply products of performance, rather it is a performance in itself. Though he applies his theory in earlier works, the book mainly creates an aesthetic and theoretical framework that accomodates late modern works and beyond. An artwork is not viewed as a product of an artist’s creativity, rather, an artwork is viewed as a process completed by the product. Davies’ theory is a good starting point in the study of the emerging trend of performativity in aesthetics and other art practices such art art criticism.
Davies questions the accepted form of art theory which he refers to as the common-sense theory. In the common sense theory, the instances of works and a direct experiential encounter is necessary as it is an intrinsically valuable experience. This perspective also views artworks as artifacts with aesthetic value conferred by their creator. To counter this, Davies uses Marcel Duchamp‘s The Fountain. This late modern work creates a new perpective in art history, art theory, aesthetics and art criticism. To view The Fountain formally through its form, color, line, proportion, etc., would be missing the point of The Fountain. A person may not have the direct experiential encounter with the work, yet the meaning and the point of the work may still be understood. The Fountain creates a shift in the way that artworks may be viewed, experienced, critiqued, and theorized. Perceiving The Fountain as a performance makes more sense rather than viewing it formally as a generative product of artistic creativity.
Common-sense theory is attacked by Davies in its three fronts, common-sense axiology, common-sense epistemology and common-sense onthology. Axiology deals mainly with value or a valuation of art work while epistemology deals with the knowledge and definition of an artwork and onthology deals with the nature of an artwork. These three fronts of the common-sense theory are completely altered upon the introduction of late modern works particularly of Duchamp’s The Fountain. The long established system of valuation, definition and nature of an artwork is no longer applicable to the contemporary works introduced. Because of this, Davies’ performance theory comes into play as it accomodates the works that is outside of the common sense theory.
Performance Theory states that “artworks are performances, more specifically, they belong to the class of performances whereby a content is articulated through a vehicle on the basis of shared understandings.” This perspective diverges from common-sense axiology, epistemology and ontology. Going back to Marcel Duchamp’s The Fountain, in terms of common-sense axiology, its artistic, economic and art-historical value is very different as compared to Pierro dela Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ. Looking at the material, it is an ordinary urinal, so it will not have a high economic value. In terms of artistic value, it is a bought object, Duchamp did not make it or sculpt it, so in the common-sense axiology, it also has no artistic value. In terms of art-historical value, maybe it does have a high value, because it changed the way artworks are to be viewed and perceived, yet it will not meet the formalistic sense of an art-historical value in the same way as the academic, historical, allegorical or religious paintings and sculptures. It is in the performativity of the art work that a value is established.
Examining the epistemology of art in the performace theory, art is a performance rather than a product of a performance. The production and the product is as one, it is perceived as a process rather than an end in and of itself. The immediate and direct experiential encounter with the work is not necessary in the appreciation or the understanding of an artwork. Rather, it is conceived of as a performance which expresses its thought and meaning even without a direct experiential encounter, an encounter which common sense theory finds necessary for an artwork to be understood and appreciated. The artistic genius is not a mystical entity, rather, it is a product of a group consciousness that is shared by human beings. Though it is the artist that makes an artwork, the consciousness wherein that artwork comes from and where that artwork is formed, is a group consciousness, not a mystical and individualized artistic genius. Once again, this is a significant shift upon how an artwork is defined and conceptualized.
Another shift happens with the ontology of art or the way that the nature of art is understood. Davies states that, “Artworks, come to existence through the intentional manipulations of a vehicular medium. Through these manipulations, artistic statement is articulated in virtue of shared understandings as to how those manipulations are to be characterized in the vocabulary of an artistic medium, and as to the import of particular manipulations characterized.” The ontological shift made by Davies is significant because it lays the foundation of the premise of performance theory, wherein art, from being a product of a performance of the artist, becomes an actual performance. The object became a completion of the performance rather than just being a product. This is a radical divergence from the way the nature of art is understood in the common-sense ontology wherein the object is simply a generative product. There is a drastic shift in the way the nature of art is understood with Davies’ performance theory.
Such shifts introduced by Davies is significant in contemporary art theory and criticism. The weaknesses of his arguments comes from his philosophical and logical styles. Though such manner is effective in philosophy and logic, aesthetics and art theory still needs to go back to the artwork. Leaving the artwork too far behind while the theory or argument is being pursued depreciates the merit of the argument presented. Furthermore, aesthetics and art theory still needs some material basis in an artwork conceivable by people, particularly in the contemporary times. Theorizing an artwork as it would have been produced and consumed in Mars, a twin Earth or another galaxy is too far off a person’s experience that the argument becomes too abstract. Aesthetics and art theory cannot be simply deduced into a formula. For at least in the present time, there should still be an actual artwork (or an actual performance according to Davies) that is referred to by aesthetics, art theory, art history and art criticism. An artwork or performance outside the experience and understanding of an ordinary human being (such as the supposed artworks in Mars, twin Earth, another galaxy) does not make sense in the practices of aesthetics, art theory, art history and art criticism. Davies himself states that group consciousness come into play in the performance, understanding and appreciation of such works, if a consciousness too far removed from human experienced is factored in, then the argument fails in its merit.
Davies considers jazz improvisation as an excellent example of a pure performance work. The pure performance of a jazz improvisation fits well into his performance theory. Yet, the premise in jazz improvisation is that it is spontaneous and unplanned. There are various complications that can arise in this argument, for instance, what if the jazz improvisation performance is recorded, reproduced and repeatedly played, is it still a pure performance work? Would that recording played over and over again still be a pure performance work that is theorized by the performance theory? Or does it become part of performed works that can belong to the conception of a common-sense theory? Such arguments need reconsideration. Some of Davies’ claims, though valid, are more easily explained through theoretical and philosophical examples rather than by artworks in the real world.
In art practices, performance theory is best applied to art criticism. As a growing trend in the art critical practice, more papers are written not just on the art object or artwork but more critics are looking into the performative aspect of an artwork. Such writing utilizes performance theories such as that of Davies’. Though Davies’ performance theory is well-developed in his writing, it still needs to go back to the artwork itself and be more understandable to the existing artworks of the world, rather than being understandable towards an artwork in another world or universe. The theory needs to be applied more effectively on existing artworks of this world and the art world rather than spending so much time theorizing on other galaxies and planets with different system of valuations, epistemologies and ontologies.
Performance theory paves the way of accomodating late modern works and beyond in the aesthetics, art theory and art criticism practices. Though the argument style of Davies may have lacks and glitches, it ushers in the contemporary artworks into theoretical practices that would have been impossible within the formalistic, empiricist and common-sense theory. This is very important as it can bridge the gap between contemporary art and earlier artworks because the performance theory may be applied to both of them. This more detailed take on family resemblances on the relationship of artworks as a performance rather than a generative product of a performance offers a new way that artworks may be understood, accepted and appreciated into an ever-changing world, particularly the art world.
Work Cited:
Davies, David. Art as Performance. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. Print.
Portia Placino 